Policy and Procedure Review Procedure (63.06.01)College Policy Number/Title:
The creation and revision of new policies and procedures is a crucial part of the college’s internal governance, which seeks to involve employees in the decision-making process in order to achieve the best possible environment for faculty, staff, and students. The board of trustees supports this process by stating in board policy that the president may not “make decisions except by a process where openness and fairness are maintained.” In turn, employees have a responsibility for continuous improvement and responsiveness to the community or stakeholders the college serves.
Any member of the faculty, staff, student, or representative of a constituency group of Howard Community College (HCC) can suggest a revision to the college’s policies and procedures or the creation of new policies by approaching their president’s team representative. Typically, these policies are revised by functional offices because they are out of date.
The president’s office should be contacted in order to obtain the most recent version of an existing document or to notify them of the creation of a new document and to enable the revision process to be tracked and expedited.
The member of president’s team suggesting the revision should work in conjunction with the director of board relations/special projects as well as appropriate functional areas (i.e., human resources for any personnel policy, faculty forum for any academic policy). This process ensures that concerned parties have input into the revisions. Once an initial revision is complete, the director of board relations/special projects will bring the draft forward to president’s team for review.
After any necessary changes to the revisions are made and president’s team has approved them, the director of board relations/special projects will send the policy or procedure to college council for discussion. With three representatives from each employee constituency group as well as one student representative, college council is responsible for reviewing and forwarding any additional recommendations on policies and procedures to president’s team for advice and consideration.
Once a revised draft is approved by president’s team, the director of board relations/special projects will share it with the chair of college council and together they will determine if it needs additional review by college council. Once a final draft is approved by president’s team, the director of board relations/special projects will share it with the college council chair and it will be posted on the web. Academic and administrative policies and procedures will be posted by the president’s office and personnel policies and procedures will be posted by the office of human resources. Additionally, all revised policies and procedures or new policies and procedures will be announced to the college community via the weekly “President’s Update” in order to keep all members of the college community informed.
Effective Date: 3/13/2009
